


The Archivists of Scarif

by AnotherSpaceWitch



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Blank Verse, Other, Scarif, data storage in the empire, poem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-09
Updated: 2017-04-09
Packaged: 2018-10-16 16:24:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10575051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnotherSpaceWitch/pseuds/AnotherSpaceWitch
Summary: The Empire kept the archivists because they were quiet. (poem)





	

The Archivists of Scarif

“Like Galen Erso, the archivists chose to remain embedded inside the Empire, and as their act of resistance, build the most useless, asinine archival system the galaxy had ever seen.” — Sarah Jeong, [VICE](http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-disk-formats-of-star-wars-rogue-one-spoilers)

The Empire kept the archivists because   
they were quiet. And they stayed quiet.  
They moved underground into the dusty   
warren of the old archives. Awake,  
they ferried documents down tube-lit hallways,   
past the clattering droids and stiff-armed troopers   
who barely noticed them. They couldn’t sleep.  
But when they did they kept on climbing up  
the same tower, into the memory palace  
they built together, hand over cold hand.  
The files that went below never had vanished  
but began to pile up. The names, the dates,  
the photographs, the plans. The monuments   
and temples and markets and towers. The pools   
and palaces and hospitals and schools.  
The archivists stopped looking one another  
in the eye. They whispered that darkness   
destroys some things and preserves other things.  
That darkness keeps to itself to stay alive.   
Yes, they said, we will create the tower.   
We kept the tapes in order. We didn’t  
write it down. The Empire thanked them,  
then made sure that no one would come asking.   
And no one did, not even a lone droid,   
clutching the blaster in its trembling claw.


End file.
